Tickets sichern!

Kronberg Festival

Good Vibrations

September 23. September to October 5, 2025

Tabea Zimmermann

viola

Since 2017
Principal Professor in the Kronberg Academy Study Programmes

Tabea Zimmermann, born in 1966, is one of the most beloved and renowned artists of our time. As winner of the international Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2020, artist in residence of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, of the Berliner Philharmoniker and, in the current season, of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tabea Zimmermann is widely acknowledged for her unfailingly high standards and tireless enthusiasm for sharing her love of music with audiences. Fellow musicians and listeners alike value her charismatic personality and deep musical understanding. Her work with orchestras is also guided by the ideals of her experience as a chamber musician, where artistic integrity is paramount.

As a soloist, she regularly works with the most distinguished orchestras worldwide such as the Orchestre de Paris, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In recent seasons, she has created residency programmes in Weimar, Luxembourg, Hamburg, with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Frankfurt Museum Society and the Festival de Granada; she also enjoys a close collaboration with Ensemble Resonanz, where she was artist-in-residence for two years. Since 2022, she has been the new Artistic Partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Tabea Zimmermann has inspired numerous composers to write for the viola and introduced many new works into the standard concert and chamber music repertoire. In April 1994, she gave the highly successful world premiere of the Sonata for Solo Viola by György Ligeti, a work composed especially for her. The subsequent premieres of this work in London, New York, Paris, Jerusalem, Amsterdam, and Japan attracted great critical and public acclaim. In recent seasons, Tabea Zimmermann has premiered Recicanto for Viola and Orchestra by Heinz Holliger, the viola concerto Über die Linie IV by Wolfgang Rihm, Monh by George Lentz, Notte di Pasqua by Frank Michael Beyer, a double concerto by Bruno Mantovani with Antoine Tamestit, and Filz by Enno Poppe with Ensemble Resonanz. She played the premiere of Michael Jarrell’s Viola Concerto at Festival Musica Strasbourg 2017 with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire under Pascal Rophé; and subsequent performances with the Vienna Symphony under Ingo Metzmacher, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Pascal Rophé and the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin under Mario Venzago. 2020 saw her premiering Wolfgang Rihm’s Stabat Mater together with Christian Gerhaher at the Musikfest Berlin and at musica viva, the Bavarian Radio’s concert series for contemporary music; in 2022 she performed Mauricio Sotelo’s Cantes antiguos del Flamenco at the Festival de Granada.

To mark Hindemith’s anniversary in 2013, Tabea Zimmermann released a highly acclaimed recording of the composer’s complete works for viola on myrios classics. Following the success of her recording of solo works by Reger and Bach with myrios classics in 2009 – for which she received an Echo Klassik prize as Instrumentalist of the Year – she has released three albums with pianists Kirill Gerstein and Thomas Hoppe. Tabea Zimmerman’s artistry is documented on over 50 CDs for labels such as Harmonia Mundi, EMI, Teldec, and Deutsche Grammophon. A live recording of her performance on Beethoven’s own viola at the Beethovenhaus Bonn, accompanied by Hartmut Höll, was released by Ars Musici. On the Harmonia Mundi label, the Arcanto Quartet released CDs of works by Bartók, Brahms, Ravel, Dutilleux, Debussy, Schubert and Mozart. In the year 2020, she released “Cantilena” with the pianist Javier Perianes on harmonia mundi and her second solo CD with works by J.S. Bach und György Kurtág on myrios, in the year 2021, she released works by Enno Poppe with Ensemble Resonanz on wergo as well as by Michael Jarrell, Brett Dean and J.S. Bach on BIS Records.

Tabea Zimmermann’s artistic work has been recognized with numerous awards both in Germany and abroad, most recently in 2020 with the international Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. In addition, she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, Frankfurter Musikpreis, Hessischer Kulturpreis, Rheingau Musikpreis, International Prize Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Sienna, the Paul-Hindemith-Prize from the city of Hanau, and named Artist of the Year by the ICMA International Classical Music Awards 2017. Since 2013, Tabea Zimmermann has been a foundation board member of the Hindemith Foundation. Under her aegis as chairman of the board of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn (2013-2020), in 2020 the Beethoven-Woche Bonn culminated in an extended three-week festival featuring nearly all of the composer’s chamber music.

Tabea Zimmermann began learning the viola at the age of three and two years later began playing the piano. She studied with Ulrich Koch at the Musikhochschule Freiburg and subsequently with Sándor Végh at the Mozarteum Salzburg. Following her studies, she received several awards at international competitions, amongst them first prizes at the 1982 Geneva International Competition and the 1984 Budapest International Competition. As a result of winning the 1983 Maurice Vieux Competition in Paris, she received a viola by the contemporary maker Etienne Vatelot. Since 2019, she has been playing an instrument built for her by Patrick Robin. She regularly gave concerts together with her husband David Shallon from 1987 until his death in 2000. Tabea Zimmermann has held teaching posts at the music colleges of Saarbrücken, Frankfurt, and Berlin (Hanns Eisler). In 2023, she returned to Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt. Since 2017, she additionnaly teaches at Kronberg Academy. 


Last updated: January 2024
Großer Saal, Casals Forum
FreundschaftsSpiele

TABEA ZIMMERMANN & FRIENDS I

Zimmermann, Kanneh-Mason, Hoppe, Students of Kronberg Academy

Participants

  • Abigél Králik violin
  • Pauline van der Rest violin
  • Wassili Wohlgemuth violin
  • Natalie Loughran viola
  • Nicholas Swensen viola
  • Tabea Zimmermann viola
  • Anouchka Hack cello
  • Oliver Herbert cello
  • Sheku Kanneh-Mason cello
  • Simon Aringer double bass
  • Thomas Hoppe piano

Programme

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 BWV 1048

Thomas Demenga (*1954)
‘Duo? o, Du...’ for viola and violoncello

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
Trio in A minor for piano, clarinet (viola) and violoncello op. 114

intermission

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Symphony No. 6 in F major op. 68 ‘Pastorale’
(Arr. G. Fischer for string sextet, ca. 1810)
 

An artist talk with Tabea Zimmermann and Prof. Dr Friedemann Eichhorn will take place at 6.45 pm.

Subject to change.

Carl Bechstein Saal, Casals Forum
FreundschaftsSpiele

TABEA ZIMMERMANN & FRIENDS II

Zimmermann, Walker, Lenaerts

Participants

  • Tabea Zimmermann viola
  • Adam Walker flute
  • Anneleen Lenaerts harp

Programme

Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
‘Syrinx’ for flute solo L 129
Sonata in F major for flute, viola and harp L 145

Arnold Bax (1883–1953)
Elegiac Trio, GP 178

intermission

Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)
Lachrymae op. 48

Sofia Gubaidulina (*1931)
‘Garden of Joys and Sorrows’ for flute, viola, harp and narrator (ad lib.)

Unfortunately, harpist Agnès Clément had to cancel her participation in the concert due to illness. We are very happy that Anneleen Lenaerts has agreed to step in at short notice. The program for the concert remains unchanged.

Subject to change.

Carl Bechstein Saal, Casals Forum
FreundschaftsSpiele

TABEA ZIMMERMANN & FRIENDS III

Zimmermann, Hoppe

Participants

  • Tabea Zimmermann viola
  • Thomas Hoppe piano

Programme

Documentary film ‘Dmitri Shostakovich. The Viola Sonata’ (1981, OmU)

The film documents the often endangered existence of Dmitri Shostakovich in the Soviet Union. The directors created their work from archive material, which they edited exclusively with music by the composer. Criticism of Soviet cultural policy and solidarity with the composer, who on the one hand was honoured, but on the other hand was repeatedly harassed and humiliated, is created through the art of montage image/music.

intermission

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Sonata in C major for viola and piano op. 147

The film is introduced by Brigitte van Kann.

Subject to change.

Großer Saal, Casals Forum
Kronberg Festival - K5

TABEA ZIMMERMANN / HANS CHRISTIAN AAVIK / ENSEMBLE RESONANZ

Aavik, Zimmermann, Ensemble Resonanz

Participants

  • Hans Christian Aavik violin
  • Tabea Zimmermann conducting & viola
  • Ensemble Resonanz

Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra, KV 364

George Enescu (1881–1955)
Octet for Strings in C major, Op. 7 (Version for String Orchestra)

Concert without intermission
 

When music becomes tangible in the body, when it vibrates and resonates and strikes us right in the heart, that's when they're there: the ‘good vibrations’. Creating this feeling is the mission of the rousing Hamburg ensemble Resonanz – a collective that has been synonymous with very special concert programmes since 1994. At the Casals Forum, the ensemble revels in the emotional depth of George Enescu's string octet and plays around the charming dialogue between violin and viola in Mozart's Sinfonia concertante with soloists Hans Christian Aavik and Tabea Zimmermann. 

In the concert introduction by renowned neuroscientist Prof. Stefan Kölsch, you will learn ‘what music does to you!’

5:45 PM, Casals Forum, Great Hall
CONCERT INTRODUCTION K5 & K6
What the Music Does to You!
With Prof. Stefan Kölsch

Subject to change.

Enjoy double and save
You can also book this concert as a package deal.
Save 20% compared to buying individual tickets.

Tickets
70 €
Großer Saal, Casals Forum
Kronberg Festival - K6

TABEA ZIMMERMANN / STEVEN ISSERLIS / ENSEMBLE RESONANZ

Zimmermann, Isserlis, Ensemble Resonanz

Participants

  • Tabea Zimmermann conducting & viola
  • Steven Isserlis cello
  • Ensemble Resonanz

Programme

Lili Boulanger (1893–1918)
D’un soir triste (Arr. J. Schöllhorn)

Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Cello Concerto No. 2 in D major, Hob. VIIb:2

Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
Divertimento for String Orchestra, Sz 113
 
Concert without imtermission

The music of Lili Boulanger has a healing effect, even though (or because?) she herself struggled with chronic illness throughout her life. The highly talented French composer created her great orchestral work D'un soir triste in 1918, shortly before her early death at the age of only 24. Her music opens up perspectives beyond the familiar – far removed from the familiar sound worlds of her often-played male contemporaries. It is music that speaks from a different experience, and that is precisely where its power lies. With Steven Isserlis, the Ensemble Resonanz also performs Haydn's lyrical and delicate Cello Concerto No. 2 in D major and Bartók's energetic Divertimento for string orchestra, inspired by Hungarian folk music.
 

5:45 PM, Casals Forum, Great Hall
CONCERT INTRODUCTION K5 & K6
What the Music Does to You!
With Prof. Stefan Kölsch



Subject to change.

Enjoy double and save
You can also book this concert as a package deal.
Save 20% compared to buying individual tickets.

Tickets
70 €